The Practicum Experience: A Survey of Practicum Site Coordinators.

It has recently been acknowledged that more needs to be known about predoctoral practicum experience in professional psychology from the perspective of those who do the practicum training. This article reports the results of a survey completed by 263 predoctoral practicum sites in the United States and Canada. Information presented includes the distribution of sites where practicum training is currently taking place and the wide range of training opportunities occurring at diverse sites. Results indicate problems in communication between practicum sites and graduate programs, evidenced in a lack of awareness of graduate program expectations by practicum site coordinators. Recommendations to improve communication are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology Training Directors' Views of Number of Practicum Hours Necessary Prior to Internship Application.

A national survey of training directors of academic programs, predoctoral internships, and postdoctoral fellowships was conducted to explore what constitutes an adequate number of practicum hours necessary to apply for internship. Training directors agreed that minimum standard hours should be set but differed on what those hours should be, with academic training directors endorsing fewer hours than directors of predoctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships. The results raise questions about what is a practicum hour and suggest a need to obtain consensus about minimum standards and the possibility of a competency-based approach rather than emphasizing hours of practicum experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic and Internship Directors' Perspectives on Practicum Experiences: Implications.

Academic and internship training directors (TDs) were surveyed regarding practicum training. The most frequently endorsed definition was that a variety of specific activities at a practicum site constituted a legitimate part of a practicum hour, including supervised clinical assessment, clinical intervention, and community consultation, advocacy, or training. Academic and internship TDs differed in their views regarding the minimum number of practicum hours necessary and whether the number of hours should be capped. Implications for points of agreement and disagreement are discussed, and applications of these data to future education and training initiatives are proposed. Suggestions for turning the focus toward competencies rather than hours obtained are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A practicum training program.

"It is the purpose of this paper to describe the development of a state hospital practicum program." "The Southeast Louisiana Hospital from its inception was planned as a facility which would offer unique opportunities in training and research for its professional personnel… . The present census of the hospital is about 360 patients." Fellows in clinical psychology have opportunities for training in diagnostic services, in psychotherapy, and in research. The nature of opportunities for experience in each of these areas is briefly outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internship hours revisited: Further evidence for a national standard.

Inconsistent training requirements across predoctoral internships have problematic implications for psychologists seeking licensure and for the profession as a whole. This investigation is an 11-year follow-up to a previous study (Bartle & Rodolfa, 1999) that explored the variation in hours accrued across predoctoral internship programs. The current study examined the total number of supervised training hours provided by internships and the methods utilized by training directors to calculate these hours. The total number of supervised hours reported by training directors ranged from 1,840 to 2,080, with 58.2% calculating hours by approximation, rounding off, or estimation. As training directors reported more total hours, they were increasingly likely to include holiday, vacation, and sick leave. Recommendations for state licensing boards and internship training programs are provided, including a national licensure requirement of 1,800 hours accrued during internship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Initial training in professional psychology: The practicum competencies outline.

The practicum is the first practice-based step toward independent professional competence in psychology. As the practicum becomes a focus of interest in psychology education, there is a strong need to identify the domains and levels of competence that should be the focus of practicum training. To address this need, the current report introduces the Practicum Competencies Outline, a summary of competency domains and expected levels of competence that may be attained during practicum. The relationship between the Outline and other recent work on competencies in psychology is discussed, and its potential uses in education and training are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training Primary Care Psychologists: A Model for Predoctoral Programs.

This article focuses on blueprints for developing primary care psychology training in graduate psychology programs. The rationale and the foundations for establishing primary care psychology as a generalist model in clinical programs are identified. An outline of a core curriculum for multiprofessional training and an introductory knowledge base for primary care psychology is presented. Finally, a developmental model for primary care practicum training and supervision is described and exemplified. Funding issues, faculty development, and student evaluations of this training are discussed. This article represents the ever-evolving model and lessons learned through 10 years of experience in collaborative programs among Wright State University's School of Professional Psychology, the School of Medicine, the College of Nursing and Health, and a set of urban community health centers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encountering difference in graduate training: Potential for practicum experience.

Psychotherapists attempt to cultivate sensitivity to difference in their work with diverse client populations. Developing therapists may also benefit from theoretical and practical encounters with difference during graduate training. Although graduate students may thrive in training institutions where orientations resonate with their intuitive understandings, valuable opportunities for growth emerge when students obtain practicum experience at sites using alternative approaches to psychotherapy. This article documents the challenges and opportunities met by one graduate student trained in existential, psychodynamic, humanistic, and sociocultural approaches, when she embarked on a practicum experience in a medical setting, where dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was the treatment of choice. She discusses professional growth, steps toward psychotherapy integration, and implications for graduate training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social justice in practicum training: Competencies and developmental implications.

This article addresses the challenge in the predoctoral education of professional psychologists of providing practicum training experiences with a strong social justice focus while also ensuring that students are acquiring the full range of foundational competencies expected of practicing psychologists. The theory-based distinction between interactional, procedural, and distributive justice will be discussed as a framework for considering a developmental progression in practicum training, moving from individually focused skills to more advanced competencies emphasizing social/institutional change. The article concludes with aspirational recommendations for any academic program seriously committed to the pursuit of social justice as part of its training mission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring the contribution of supervisors to intervention outcomes.

Supervision has been identified as perhaps the most important mechanism for developing competencies in therapists in training. However, there is scant research on the effect of supervisors on client outcome. Moreover, in a relatively recent review of the existing literature, significant methodological concerns were raised that attenuate the interpretability of the existing reported findings. The current study therefore sought to address such methodological concerns. Crosstabulation of supervisors by client outcome categories (i.e., recovered, reliably improved, no reliable change, deteriorated) indicated that supervisors are significantly related to client outcome, generating a moderate effect. Training programs are therefore encouraged to routinely track client outcomes as an objective indicator of quality supervision. Additional implications for training programs and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training Ethical Psychologists: An Acculturation Model.

This article presents an approach to graduate (and professional) training that views becoming an ethical psychologist as an acculturation process. J. W. Berry's (1980, 2003) model of acculturation strategies is used as a framework for understanding ethical acculturation, a developmental process during which students can use several types of adaptation strategies. Students enter training with their own moral value traditions and concepts but are confronted with new ethical principles and rules, some of which may be inconsistent with their ethics of origin. The article explores several applications of the framework to ethics courses, practicum supervision, and other areas of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competency in integrative psychotherapy: Perspectives on training and supervision.

Increasingly, many psychotherapists identify with an integrative approach to psychotherapy. In recent years, more attention has been directed toward the operationalization and evaluation of competence in professional psychology and health care service delivery. Aspects of integrative psychotherapy competency may differ from competency in other psychotherapy orientations, although convergence is more often the case. Despite the potential differences, there exist very few formal training programs or guidelines to systematically guide clinicians in developing a competent integrative practice. This paper attempts to distill the essential elements of competent integrative psychotherapy practice and focuses on how these might be developed in training and supervision. We address most of these complex issues from a specific integrative perspective: principle-based assimilative integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating social justice training into the practicum experience for psychology trainees: Starting earlier.

Calls from the psychological literature have highlighted a need for the integration of social justice training in both didactic and fieldwork practicum experiences in professional psychology. This article presents concrete strategies for practicum instructors and applied fieldwork training site staff to integrate social justice work into practicum experiences. The authors review current scholarship on social justice training, identify foundational principles of social justice and recommendations for teaching social justice in applied training facilities, and apply these principles and recommendations to practicum experiences. Learning activities and evaluation methods are identified and presented, and recommendations for integration of these methods for teaching psychology trainees are underscored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Criteria for evaluating training programs in clinical or in counseling psychology.

Standards for university training in clinical psychology and counseling psychology previously published in the American Psychologist which serve as criteria for evaluating curricula submitted for approval as doctoral training programs are briefly summarized under the following major headings and subheadings: I. Staff—basic staff, clinical or counseling staff; II. Content Areas—general psychology, psychodynamics of behavior, diagnostic methods, psychotherapy and counseling, research methods, related disciplines; III. Facilities and Equipment—offices and classrooms, laboratory space and equipment and shop facilities, practicum facilities, library, student seminar or reading rooms; IV. Overall Atmosphere of the Department. Internships are also discussed in terms of staff, prerequisites of students accepted, content and methods of practicum training, and facilities for study and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Divergence, convergence, openness, and specificity in training and supervision.

Reviews the books, Supervision and training: Models, dilemmas and challenges edited by F. W. Kaslow (1986); Handbook of family therapy training and supervision edited by H. A. Liddle, D. C. Breunlin, and R. C. Schwartz (see record 1988-98390-000); and Family therapy education and supervision edited by F. P. Piercy (1986). Kaslow's book uniformly addresses the subject of supervision with some comment on training formats as well. The volume succeeds admirably in realizing the editor's intention of presenting a multiplicity of viable models, and her summary chapter draws common threads together into a patchwork of issues and themes. Liddle, Breunlin, and Schwartz's book is thoughtful and concise, with a nice blend of conceptual and practical material. The book offers the most current overview and bibliography available, useful specific recommendations, and thoughtful organization of its articles. It is praiseworthy in its attention to research, theory, and context and stage-of-training factors in relation to supervision and training. Piercy's book contains chapters which are well presented and offer valuable concrete guidelines; however, overall the material is unfocused, scattered across too many areas, and works best in journal form. All three of the volumes considered in this review serve as compendiums, and in some cases updates, of models for the delivery of training and supervision. There is very little overlap of content among the three, and taken together, they offer intra- and interdisciplinary contrasts of training and supervision that may serve as the starting place for program planning, or for hypothesizing data collection, and theorizing about these two important endeavors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does psychotherapy training matter? Maybe not.

Four articles address aspects of psychotherapy training and the ways in which training can enhance psychotherapist development. In this article, the author reviews the suppositions and contentions made by these authors, identifies common themes, offers critical comment, and provides perspectives, albeit personally biased, on these articles. In addition, propositions regarding the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of psychotherapy training are offered as well as future directions in examining the adequacy of psychotherapy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practicum and internship training in program evaluation.

Survey results from 34 graduate programs indicate that there was a large amount of variability and ambiguity as to the role of field training in evaluation curricula. Diversity existed in the use of terminology, time commitment, and the amount and quality of supervision. There was some agreement concerning prerequisite course work and the type of settings viewed as suitable placements. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practicum training for pediatric psychologists: A case study.

Describes a university-based practicum training program in pediatric psychology that represents a collaborative effort of the 2 areas of clinical and developmental psychology, as well as joint efforts between pediatric residents and pediatric psychology students. The academic component of the training involves shared course work between psychologists and pediatric residents. The clinical component includes consultation, assessment, and short-term treatment of children with combined medical, developmental, and psychological problems. An evaluation of the training program using several effectiveness indicators is presented. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)